Effects of scratching directions on AFM-based abrasive abrasion process

AFM-based single abrasive abrasion process is widely employed in the surface micro/nanomachining for fabrication of structures at the nanometer scale. The wear depth and roughness are significantly important in the application of these structures. To study effects of scratching directions on the wear depth and roughness within the wear mark, single groove scratching test and wear test on the surface of polished single crystal silicon were carried out using AFM with a pyramidal diamond tip. Single groove scratching tests indicated that tip geometry leads to different removal states such as cutting and plowing. At the same load, deeper wear depth and rougher surface were produced by using the scratching direction perpendicular to the long axis of the cantilever rather than parallel to the long axis of the cantilever. Surface roughness decreases with respect to the feed scratching perpendicular to the long axis of the cantilever, whereas while scratching along the long axis of the cantilever, the surface roughness is rougher at the small feed. This is attributed to the different stiffness of the cantilever along different scratching directions and different removal states between the tip and sample.